Metametaphysics

New Essays on the Foundations of Ontology

Edited by David Chalmers, David Manley, and Ryan Wasserman

A collection of papers in one of the hottest areas of current analytic philosophy

Features a stellar cast that includes many of the world's leading philosophers.

All papers previously unpublished

Currently the only collection focussed specifically on this topic, which is a growing area of debate.

Metametaphysics

New Essays on the Foundations of Ontology

Edited by David Chalmers, David Manley, and Ryan Wasserman

Description

Metaphysics asks questions about existence: for example, do numbers really exist? Metametaphysics asks questions about metaphysics: for example, do its questions have determinate answers? If so, are these answers deep and important, or are they merely a matter of how we use words? What is the proper methodology for their resolution? These questions have received a heightened degree of attention lately with new varieties of ontological deflationism and pluralism challenging the kind of realism that has become orthodoxy in contemporary analytic metaphysics.

This volume concerns the status and ambitions of metaphysics as a discipline. It brings together many of the central figures in the debate with their most recent work on the semantics, epistemology, and methodology of metaphysics.

Metametaphysics

New Essays on the Foundations of Ontology

Edited by David Chalmers, David Manley, and Ryan Wasserman

Author Information

David Chalmers is Professor of Philosophy at the Australian National University. He works in the philosophy of mind and in related areas of philosophy and cognitive science. He is especially interested in consciousness, but is also interested in artificial intelligence and computation, in philosophical issues about meaning and possibility, and in the foundations of cognitive science and of physics.

David Manley is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Southern California. His papers in metaphysics and epistemology have appeared in such journals as Mind, The Journal of Philosophy, Nous>, and Philosophical Quarterly. Ryan Wasserman is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Western Washington University.

Metametaphysics

New Essays on the Foundations of Ontology

Edited by David Chalmers, David Manley, and Ryan Wasserman

Reviews and Awards

"Metametaphysics is an excellent collection of papers about the nature and methodology of metaphysics written by the subject's movers and shakers. It will be of great interest to anyone enamored, repulsed, or mystified by metaphysics." --Philosophical Review

"[E]ven if you're not a metaphysician -- indeed, even if you're deeply suspicious of metaphysics -- Metametaphysics is interesting.... Metametaphysics hosts a debate that is much more nuanced than a simple 'skeptics vs. enthusiasts' dichotomy. Skepticism about metaphysics can take different forms and come in different degrees. It is also, unsurprisingly, resistible in a variety of ways. Metametaphysics develops many of the central issues in this dialectic, making it essential reading, not just for the metaphysician, but for the skeptic about metaphysics as well."--Elizabeth Barnes, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews